Many CIOs are banning employees from using Twitter and other social networks while at work–but a few brave CIOs have joined the popular site themselves and are sharing their views on technology and stories from their personal lives. (See related story, Facebook, Twitter becoming business tools, but CIOs remain wary.)
Here’s a list of 12 CIOs who have joined the Twitter conversation, with examples of what they’re writing:
Casey Coleman is CIO for the U.S. General Services Administration, where she manages a $500 million government IT program, and previously worked for Lockheed Martin. Coleman likes to use Twitter to share links, network with fellow IT executives and pass on some personal tidbits.
Example tweets: Got a new laptop at work today, and it has a solid state hard drive. Smokin’ fast.
Words of wisdom from my father in law (true story): “Never choose a barber based on the advice of a bald man.”
Nigel Fortlage is vice president of IT at GHY International, a brokerage company in Winnipeg. Fortlage joined GHY more than 20 years ago as its first full-time IT staffer and oversees all aspects of information technology at the company. Fortlage says he sees technology “as a tool, not an end game,” and wears a Santa hat in his Twitter profile picture.
Example tweets: Thanks to a non follow tweet I received, I am now closing in on final choice for CRM, Thanks to all for your feedback, It is NOT Salesforce
I am on 23 twitter lists, many of them CIO related which is great, the most unique is @Nigel3333/all-the-nigel-s, what’s in a name…
Jim Haughwout is CIO for Neighborhood America in Florida, which provides a social media platform for government and enterprise customers. Haughwout (pronounced “how-it”) writes what he calls “The Corner Office Blog” about managing technology to drive business value, and has traveled to 69 countries in 17 years.
Example tweets: Charging For Checked Baggage: Airlines’ Misunderstanding of Game Theory
Have you restored your #privacy on #Facebook yet? Latest tips from @AlleyInsider
Andrew Hoppin is CIO of the New York state Senate, where he has focused on engaging state residents through Web 2.0 technologies. Hoppin took on the newly created role of CIO at the Senate in February of last year, and previously managed a program at NASA that used technology such as Second Life to facilitate collaborations between the space agency and outside groups.
Example tweets: @jessykate any good white papers on how other gov’ts can build private clouds based on @NASAnebula at lowest possible cost?
Glad news of WhiteHouse.gov moving 2 #Drupal finally public! Hope 2 use WH-funded code on NYSenate.gov in the future!
Scott Lowe is CIO for Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., and author of books on home networking, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Windows Small Business Server. Lowe likes to Tweet about the iPhone and VMware.
Example tweets: For the 4th gen iPhone, I hope apple addresses battery life and multitasking.
Out of time… anyone know a good (but not massively overpriced) VMware consultant that can finish an underway build-out?
Tony Maro is CIO for EvriChart, an electronic health records company in West Virginia, and also writes a blog on “open source software, life, and photography.”
Example tweets: When it takes 2 minutes to scroll to the bottom of your Bookmarks menu in Firefox, I think it’s time to organize and purge.
Only 2 tech companies invited to Obama’s jobs summit, both are heavy into open-source.
Chris Marsh is CIO for Aviacode in Salt Lake City, which makes medical coding devices, and a football fan who roots for the University of Utah Utes. Marsh likes to post inspirational comments such as “Not everything is worth doing, but doing is worth everything.”
Example tweets: OCD alert … my kids spend 30 minutes putting together a gingerbread house and I take 2 hours. Looks cool though.
Got a domain a while back … (s.hrink.it) for URL shortening. Don’t have time to develop it alone. Anybody want to get me motivated?
Jack Pond is CIO for Montgomery County in Pennsylvania, where he has implemented a fiber VoIP telecommunications and data network, an ERP system, document imaging and archiving, an e-government information and service platform, and created a law enforcement information sharing system.
Example tweets: Am I the only one who grasps the irony of this week’s top tech story, “Virtualization Pushes Server Sales”
Cyberterrorism-the next Y2K. Successful vendors will capitalize on fear and ignorance NOW – inflating threat/risk for personal profit!!
Anybody but me seeing the similarties between “cloud in a box” offerings of HP, IBM, Oracle, EMC, Cisco, Sun, etc. and 1960’s mainframes?
Neal Puff is CIO of Yuma County in Arizona and author of the book Security for People and Computers. Puff was named one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders in 2008, and has consistently led Yuma to top 10 national rankings in the Center for Digital Government’s digital counties survey.
Example tweets: What a great Thanksgiving. AC failures caused massive server outages. Most everything running as of now. Man, I hate low bid contracts.
#cioevents IT Forecast from CIO: The Year Ahead…… Partly cloudy with a 90% chance of virtualization.
John Shea is CIO of the Eaton Vance financial services firm in Boston, and was previously IT director at Batterymarch Financial Management. Shea describes himself as a “Corporate CIO and lover of technology, gadgets and general geekdom.”
Example tweets: #sirpaul Paul McCartney was fabulous in Fenway Park last night, incredible energy for age 67
Anyone have an extra $200K for a 2 hr space ship ride? THE world’s first commercial space rocket
R. Todd Thomas is CIO for the Austin Radiological Association in Texas, and describes himself as a “healthcare CIO with a penchant for PC and console gaming.” Thomas tweets about real-world experiences with technologies such as Citrix, Google Chrome and the iPhone.
Example tweets: Our #IBM 3950s arrived yesterday; time to move our #Citrix farm from proof-of-concept servers to these production bad boys
Uh oh; first staff reports from using Goodlink on the iphone aren’t good – you can’t receive email unless the app is running, and it’s slow
Omri Tintpulver is CIO at Brunico Communications in Toronto, which produces print and electronic publications and hosts industry events. On Twitter, Tintpulver likes to post the latest technology stories he’s read, and recently tweeted about getting an H1N1 flu shot, reporting that the vaccine clinic was “very orderly and well managed” despite an hourlong wait.
Example tweets: Surprisingly easy to build an adobe air application – and even use visual studio to do so – living on the desktop is going to be good
without changing anything my Facebook turned all French — thankfully 8 years of French class helped me stumble to the right tab #fb